Project failure and NOW to avoid it

The title is a mistype, but I like it – urgency is often missing in projects, and we all know the sooner you tackle a problem, the sooner it’s resolved and the less it costs.

Most enterprises recognise the value of standard processes, techniques and methods and the need for ‘people skilled in people’ – relationships, communication and leadership. Pelicam have previously demonstrated that these two “dimensions” (hard and soft) don’t include all the elements necessary to guarantee success. Why is that? Two reasons:

1.) Because no two projects are the same – why?

the context (where we operate - the environment, the organisation, the politics); and

the content - complexity, design, products.

2.) How to ensure the right things are done well - the granularity, precision, accuracy and focused decision making that is required?

We are always asked: “what makes a good project manager?” Yes there’s the normal stuff about intelligence, energy, people skills – but the significant competency is the ability to decide what to focus on – what needs to get done, what problem needs to be resolved,what problem can be ignored?

Pelicam call this third dimension ‘Project Intelligence’. It’s a combination of skill, instinct, technique and experience.

We’ve consolidated findings of 50 recent project intelligent reviews – scaling from £2m to £500m - across a number of industries – and it’s produced FIVE learning points.

TWO - Projects scored 50% against best practice. Why so low? Because by definition, best practice must take into account every situation and permutation; and projects are not designed that way. Our hypothesis remains –best practice is not a helpful measure.

THREE - Projects reviewed early in the life cycle are more likely to be successful. Conversely, projects reviewed late in late stages (test/ implementation) are often ‘too far gone’ and beyond help.

FOUR – High incidence of Critical/Red/Black/Toxic issues (there’s only so many ways of saying these are really, really important):